The 10 Best Sci-Fi Movies—As Chosen By Scientists

Real scientists can be the harshest critics of science fiction. But that doesn't mean they can't enjoy a movie just because it bends the laws of nature. We polled dozens of scientists and engineers to discover the sci-fi movies they love.

No. 10 The War of the Worlds (1953)

No. 10 The War of the Worlds (1953)

This cinematic update of the 1898 H.G. Wells novel about a violent Martian invasion was particularly jarring because of the timing of its debut—namely, when World War II weaponeering prowess and the threat of nuclear attack were very much part of the national consciousness. The idea that humans could be vastly overmatched in battle by aliens terrified viewers and set their imaginations spinning. "I was sick all night long," Seth Shostak, the senior astronomer with the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute, says of his first viewing of the film. "That's the mark of a film that makes a difference."

No. 9 Star Wars (1977)

No. 9 Star Wars (1977)

It's futuristic fantasy with a hammy space-opera plot borrowed from spaghetti westerns and samurai films. But scientists love Star Wars just as much as everyone else. "Nothing so fantastical yet inspiring had been on the big screen before," says Aaron Blaisdell, a UCLA professor of behavioral neuroscience, who first saw the movie at age 9. Siddhartha Srinivasa, of Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute, also saw Star Wars as a boy. Now he's building a servant robot partially inspired by C-3PO. "Fiction stimulates science as it points to a future we should strive for," he says.